The Succour of Le Hameau avec des Porcs (Wood Elves vs Skaven)

Elendil Pathkeeper strode into the temporary camp of the Kindred Of The Twilight Brook seeking his liege lord Silasal Skyslayer. Finding his quarry he quickly gave his report.
 'My Lord, I have found signs of a large Skaven force barely a halfday's march from the forest! Very close to the human village that we oftentimes trade pork and brandy.'
'To arms Kindred! Those foul rodents of chaos aren't getting their hands on my booze!'.
And thusly did the Succour of Le Hameau avec des Porcs begin.


I had my first game using the Vaticon Comp for my Wood Elves vs Skaven last week and it was the first time I got to use a Magic Lore that addressed some of the Wood Elves inherent weaknesses. I tried a few things that I don't really go for again Skaven and on the whole I was pretty happy with the results.

My army list consisted of:

Silasal Skyslayer' Highborn on Eagle with Sword of Might, Stone of the Crystal Mere, Dragonhelm, Charmed Shield, Annoyance of Netlings.

Cliath Carne The Skeinweaver' Level 4 Spellweaver (Shadow Magic) with Wand of the Wych Elm & Stone of Rebirth. Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma, The Enfeebling Foe, The Withering, Okkam's Mindrazor.

Gasaldriel the Noble, Army Standard Bearer with Armour of Fortune.

Kelthelmon Gladegrim,Wild Rider Noble with Dawnspear & Enchanted Shield.

Aeth Hawksight, Level 2 Glamourweave on elven steed with Power Stone. Wyssan's Wildform & Savage Beast of Horros.

Branchwraith

3 units of 8 Dryads

15 Glade Guard with the flaming banner

10 Glade Guard with standard & musician

2 units of 10 Glade Guard

8 Wardancers with Bladesinger & musician

8 Wild Riders with full command & Banner of Swiftness

2 Great Eagles

The skaven army consisted of a general on a warlitter (I really should build one of those), a Grey Seer on foot, Army standard bearer and a Plague Priest. There were five big units of at least 40+ betailed rodents, two were Clanrats, two were Slaves and the fifth was Plague monks. added to that was a Warp Lightning Cannon, a Doomwheel and a Hellpit Abomination. Three rat darts and two units of gutter runners made up the rest. Ninety three models vs approximately 233.  Not the ideal ratio, but then again, being outnumbered is something Elf armies are used to.

Wood Elf Deployment

Skaven Deployment

Deployment was pretty cagey, with me dropping both eagles on the flanks (the rat darts did likewise) I then placed my units to the left with Stuart starting around the hamlet & keeping a strong middle with presumably the intent of sweeping round my flank with the Doomwheel & Plague Monks. My plan was to occupy the buildings with the Dryads, destroy the high toughness units with hex's & buffs on my own units then to use the Wild Rider unit as a late game hammer.

Deployment

Turn One

I won the roll for first turn (essential for my shooting army!) and sent my eagles out to the flanks whilst advancing with my Dryads and getting the archers in decent firing positions. It's probably worth noting again that the rules pack I am using for a warm up to my upcoming tournament gives Wood Elves ASF special rule and access to all of the lores of magic. I took Shadow magic for my main caster as I thought it addressed many of the Wood Elf shortcomings, mainly how to deal with tough opponents, or high strength enemies. So in the magic phase I cast The Withering on the Hell Pit Abomination (as it was a one man rape show in my last game) to reduce it's toughness to a manageable level. I also cast Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma on the Doomwheel in an attempt to slow it down. I IFed the Withering (henceforth known as 'Die Rodent Die!') killing 5 Wardancers & putting a wound on my mage, at the same time taking -1 toughness from the Abomb. Also managed to cast Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma on the Doomwheel taking -1 from it's move. Shooting saw me kill the Abomb outright with approximately 36 shots and the flaming banner, and putting one wound on the Doomwheel, which went out of control. My turn ended with the feeling that the smoking mound of semi rotten rat offal couldn't hurt me this game. Result.

Wood Elf Turn 1

The Skaven turn started with a double rat dart charge on my left great Eagle and the other rat dart totally ignoring the one on the right. As the Doomwheel was moving very erratically, the Plague monks hung back so as not to start taking lightning bolts in their furry jacksies. Wither was cast on my Dryads in the largest building and the Warplightning cannon killed a couple when it shot at them. I was disappointed to find my Great Eagle couldn't stand up to two rat darts, doubly so when they killed it and overran pretty close to my large Glade Guard unit. Squatted Eagle aside things weren't looking too bad.

Skaven Turn 1

Turn Two

I managed a long charge with my Dryads into the Skavenslave unit with wet feet. I scooted round the other Slave unit with my eagle so I could line up some fun charges later in the game. I flew my Eagle rider to hide from the Warp Lightning Cannon and sounded a general advance. Cast The Withering on the Doomwheel but only reducing T by a mere -1 again. Shooting killed a few rats & the Glade Guard unit on the right caused another wound on the Doomwheel sending it out of control again! The Dryads layed some serious smackdown on the Slaves, and as they were halfway in the river, got no steadfast and no rank bonus. Unsurprisingly they fled. 

Wood Elf Turn 2

The Skaven army had two charges to declare, both left most rat darts charged the Glade Guard, but only one unit made it. I had completely forgotten about the Gutter Runners who appeared behind the Wild Riders. Curses! Magic saw the total lethality of Skaven magic when Plague killed a few Dryads then rebounded into a Clanrat unit killing well over 20 of them! To make matters worse for the unit the Grey Seer in it cast Wither with Irrisistible Force on my now toughness 2 Dryad unit in the building and fried half a dozen Clanrats. A few archers died to Warp Lightning, and to my horror the Gutter Runner units reduced my Wild Riders to three models! Close combat saw the rat dart seen off in short order fleeing virtually off table.

Skaven Turn 2

Turn Three

The Dryads charged the Warp Lightning Cannon, and my other combat unitsadvanced towards the main clanrat units. Due to the spectacularly lethal display from the gutter runners I gave them a few volleys of close range Elven arrows that  routed both units. The Dryads unsurprisingly killed the cannon crew and reformed (only not shown in the map - Drat!).

Wood Elf turn 3

The Skaven General charged out of his unit into the eagle rider and due to the exhausting backwards & forwards tactic employed by the Doomwheel driver the poor shagged out rats powering it hardly moved at all, which kept the Plague Monks stationary rather than have an out of control war machine run them over.  The Plague Priest miscast Bless With Filth rendering him a now, non magic user. Combat between the two generals was drawn.

Skaven turn 3

Turn Four

I charged my Glade Guard unit nearest the rat dart into them to avoid getting charged by the larger slave unit. I think around this time the dice gods thought that now I had no magical resistance, they wouldn't give me very many magic dice to clease the forest with! I advanced all my units towards the enemy and tragically split my fire resulting in panicking the Clanrats unit but not managing to damage the biggest threat (Doomwheel). The combat between the generals continued. The Glade Guard routed the rat dart (unsurprisingly) and overran to relative safety.

Wood Elf Turn 4

The skaven advance (sort of) continued on the flank and the Doomwheel wheeled round to splat and/or Zzzzaapp some Dryads. A couple of forest spirits were duly toasted. The skaven general finally failed his break test and I pursued, killing him and hitting the Clanrat unit in the flank.

Skaven Turn 4

Turn Five

I charged the Great Eagle and Dryads into the Clanrats in the hope that the steadfast could be removed (a long shot I know) in one turn, enabling me to out outmaneuver (sp?!) the filthy Plague Monks. I reduced the movement of the Doomwheel slightly with  Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma and sent a unit of Dryads out as bait for it (and hopefully stop it from getting involved in combat with my flying circus. Shooting killed a few slaves and that was about it. I think I won combat by well over 10 but steadfast spoiled the party!

Wood Elf Turn 5

The skaven turn saw the Plague monks line up for a charge and the Doomwheel destroy the unit of Dryads. The Clanrat unit broke, and was killed in the subsequent pursuit by the eagle squadron. I left the single Dryad and Branchwraith there as insurance against warp lightning and such.

Skaven Turn 5

Turn Six

Turn six was a wind down turn,where I left a little bit of bait for the skaven to ensure my more important (expensive) unit didn't give a bagfull of VPs at the end. The only thing I left in charge range were a couple of Dryads. Magic and shooting failed to cause much damage so I was in my happy place for the last turn.

Wood Elf Turn 6

The plague monks charged the Dryads whilst the Skavenslave unit charged the Wardancers in the wood. The Doomwheel advanced & shot a few from the other unit. Close combat saw 2 Dryads die and the Wardancers stay in combat with the slaves due to skirmishers being steadfast in woods.

End result, a solid victory for the wood elves and a big shiny endorsement for Shadow magic!

Skaven Turn 6

Below are a few pictures from the game.

Turn 2

The incredibly uncontrollable Doomwheel

Shoot Kurnous dammit!

Sneaky feckers!

it's amazing how messy a table gets

Isometric view?

Die skaven die!

Classy biscuits!

And a ratty New Year

Just a quick entry to record my final painting spurt of the year and amazingly (for me anyway) to get over a hundred figures painted this year!

Clanrats! Eeek!

 First up, I painted two clanrats for my Screaming Bell unit. Yes two is a crappy number but it is merely to bring the unit size up to 39 (a multiple of 13) so it is finished for small gaming purposes. Of course the unit will need at least another 13 members but that's for another year.

The Septic Musk Gland

 Here are some of my newly finished Plague Monks, with painted banner. I was trying to come up with a cool name for them, to adequately put the fear of the Horned Rat into their enemies whilst instilling pride and not-running-awayness into those around them. Unfortunately I couldn't think of anything like that so my Plague Monks unit is now called The Septic Musk Gland.

More Septic Glands

Here are some more of the unit, including three monks who are so proud of their ailments that they have made little scrolls advertising the fact, so in order are Tail Pox, Pink Eye and Nose Rot. Plus friends.

Rats, rats, wonderful rats!

Lastly here are 38 giant rats. Giants Rats don't seem to get much love according to the internet, but I'm a big fan. About 18 of the above figures are 90's purchases that have seen extensive combat action and as a reward received some rebasing and touch ups. The newer ones are all pretty much battlefield virgins, and hopefully I can change that in the new year.


So anyhoo Happy New Year and may you exploit all your opponents weaknesses whilst rolling average dice!

Painted up for Christmas!

The glacial pace of my painting continues unabated but I have something to offer today. As I've noted before, I paint more when I'm playing so I've gotten, if not a shitload, a definite shitlittle of figures finished.
Behold!

First up are a unit of wood Elf archers, not sure if it's the figures or the gradual deterioration of my eyesight but those eyes were hellishly hard to do.

Squinty eyed wood Elf archers

This figure comes from my undercoated for more than a decade pile. She (?) will be going into my Empire army to create the impression that some armies in the Warhammer world are equal opportunities employers. Is it me or does she look like Wallace in drag?

Huge Helga

This is a Black Tree designs halfling and like so many of my figures has spent a long time dormant, waiting for some paint love. I quite like this model although if you look at the base of his bow you will see a tiny skull. This has, in my opinion given the model a very sinister appearance as it is too small for even a human baby skull, so it has to be a baby halfling skull. As it is casually discarded at the foot of the archer, I can only surmise that this model is actually a halfling serial killer, and therefore not fighting for the forces of order, but rather a sadistic murderous evil little guy eaten up by hate and height issues. Not a very nice chap at all.

Rob the Halfling Hood

As part of my Chaos army these very old hounds add some very much needed chaff for opponents arrows to collect keeping my Chaos Warriors intact just before they rend the opposition limb from limb.

Raargh! Chaos hounds

 Finally, here is my Wood Elf hero on his Great Eagle of Doom. This is one of my first picks when writing an army list as his mobility and all round fighting ability has pulled quite a few victories from the jaws of defeat.

Death from the skies

Squawk!

 So there you have it. My army(s) have expanded by 19 painted models whilst my unpainted pile has decreased by the same amount. Time for a congratulatory biscuit I think.

Hellpit Abomination & Chaos Spawn WIP

 

Just thought I'd put up a couple of pictures of my Hellpit Abomination & Chaos Spawn conversions for your amusement.

Ermintrude the Abomination is a wire framed nightmare of green stuff and bits from my bits box. I vowed to myself not to cave and buy an Abomb so I decided to make my own (thus saving €57). So far all she's cost me is €13 for green stuff and probably 5 hours of blood, sweat and invocations to the Horned Rat! It's coming along nicely. The observant will notice the plastic Tyranid legs and the back end of an old Ork warbike. It's covered, sort of with patches of fur and assorted boils, warts, sores and carbuncles. Id hope to get her finished by the end of the year.  

Ermintrude the Abomb

the other side of Ermintrude

My chaos spawn is a 20 year work in progress which is gradually coming to an end with my newfound competence with modelling. It wasn't actually started by me but my nephew who chopped up two metal centaurs, added two halves of a plastic warhouse to get the body of this many hooved monstrosity. Features on this model include : two huge tongues , tentacles, hairy appendages, many teeth & a puckered starfish. Another 1-2 hours and this will also be ready for painting.

The nine legged terror of chaos

Those ball like objects are eyes

Tournament in March - Vaticon

For a while now I've been toying with the idea of playing in a tournament. Vaticon is at the end of March 2014 and I'm strongly tempted. I was thinking Wood Elves would be fun especially after I saw the comp pack:

Wood Elves

•       100 points extra 10% reduction on victory points conceded

•       Glade Guard models (excluding scouts), max 70

•       All elves in the army have ASF (Wild Riders are considered Elves. This does not affect any Elven mount or steed)

•       Casters may choose spells from any of the 8 Common Lores

•       Forest Spirit's Ward Save is not negated by Magical Attacks

•       Dryads ward save is negated by spells from the lore of fire, this includes any unit with the flaming sword of ruin or the cloak spell.

Reduce the cost of eternal guard hordes by 10% on the army roster

All the things that greatly reduce Wood Elves viability in 8th have been somewhat addressed. I suppose the only thing extra would be to give Wardancers the ability to disrupt units with flank or rear charges, but I can't have everything I suppose!

Goodbye Roleplaying

Just a quick post. I've finally decided to get rid of my White Wolf World of Darkness roleplaying gear. For anyone  interested I've put them up on the opposite of ebay. It's called miniaturebids.com and if you want to see my old roleplaying books (and more importantly want to give me money for them) click here. Go on, buy my stuff so I can buy more stuff!

Ninja Vampire killing

Wizardy Stuff

Psychotic Vampirey killy stuff

Oriental Bloodsuckers

Goodbye old friends *wipes a single tear from eye* sniff. I'm going to miss you. A bit anyway.

My 2014 Chaos, Dark Elf and Empire Challenge

Well I have gotten my early Christmas present to myself (Chaos, Empire & Dark Elf Army Books) and flicking through them I'm liking what I see. Now anyone who has looked through this blog will probably have noticed two things, firstly is that I flit from project to project with wild abandon, the other is my unrealistic optimism. Coupled together these characteristics mean that I am confident that my 2014 aim (to complete 2400 point viable forces for the three above mentioned armies) is fairly possible. 

Warriors Of Chaos

Probably the easiest of my armies to get to 2400 points are my Warriors of Chaos. I've got 32 Chaos Warriors painted, another 15 Beastmen (that will be used as Forsaken) a rather small Daemon Prince (thay can't all be huge can they?) and another 9 Drakul Knights from Black Tree Design who can either be more Warriors or Chosen, depending on the  mood I'm in. So the approximate total of painted (poorly and above) is 1100 points with very little upgrades. Nearing completion is some Chaos Hounds and a Chimera, so it's a very achievable target.

A Chaos Hordette

Some unsavory Dudes 

These Barbarian figures below can either be used as Marauders or Middenheimers so they are multifunctional models, or they will be when they get based properly!

Chaos Marauders or Hairy Empire Troops?

The Empire

Ever since I started gaming I bought lots of fantasy humans as interesting npcs for my roleplaying games and with the eventual hope that a fully formed  Empire army would appear. Sadly over 20 years later and this hasn't happened! So i'm going to have to take matters into my own hands and actually PLAN AN EMPIRE ARMY!!!  

Various wizards,witches and priests

For someone who can't generally stand dwarfs, I have managed to accumulate quite a few. There are Crossbow Dwarfs, Thief Dwarfs, Norse Dwarfs and even a Ghost Dwarf. Not forgetting Bugman himself.

Dwarven contingent

Next is a motley array of thieves, assassins, yokels, ghosts (again) and statues. These will be my free company models, due in no small part to the fact they are are with many different types of weapons.

Free company

My spear unit has a few old school Empire troops with halflings, half naked barbarian women and a ninja, talk about the league of nations!

Spears

My swordsman (and woman) unit is one of the few that has a decent enough size, there are many 'ethnic' people in it too.

Swordsmen

My greatswords is only 13 strong so that needs to be doubled in size I reckon.

Greatswords

My archers are an ok size (if you allow halflings in there) for a skirmish screen but not much else, the handgunners are a paltry 4 models so they may have to be absorbed back into the free company!

Ranged weapon Dept.

So all in all I have the scratchings of 1000 points of Empire Troops, not great but with some funky artillery and a unit of cavalry it could get close.

Dark Elves

My Dark Elf army presents a bit more of a problem. 45 models painted. Dreadlord, wizard (of sorts), 3 assasins, 30 corsairs and 10 Witch Elves. Roughly 950 points. I wanted to theme this army around a mainly slave raiding force, all Corsairs & Dark Riders, which is an enduring image I have for them, get in quick, kill most of the enemy, bring the rest back in chains. I have enough Corsairs to make a second unit and enough Dark Riders for two flanking units so my plan should be relatively simple to execute.

3 assasins a Dreadlord and wizard Dandy

Corsairs - painted by ebay

Corsairs painted by moi

So I have set myself the not insignificant target of painting up 3500 points by, well I suppose December 2014. The only good news in that respect is I probably have about 600 points of very nearly painted models so the whole shebang could well be finished before I ht 50 (in 6 years time)!